2022 Nissan Frontier Reviews, Pricing & Specs

The 2022 Frontier represents the company’s latest step in its “Nissan Next” strategy: the promise to deliver 10 refreshed, redesigned, or debuting vehicles over the course of 20 months. After heavy refreshes to the Kicks and Armada and full redesigns for the Rogue and Pathfinder, and ahead of debuts for the all-new, all-electric Ariya and the new 400Z sports car, the Frontier arrives in 2022 as a dramatically new midsize pickup truck.

With blocky, rugged styling, the 2022 Frontier’s design reflects shades of the old Nissan Hardbody pickup from the 1980s and 1990s. Nissan’s project lead designer, Hiren Patel, described the design process for the 2022 Frontier as like taking a solid block of metal and then machining it down to create the truck’s shape.

Available in nine exterior colors including Tactical Green, Deep Pearl Blue, and Boulder Gray Pearl, the new Frontier also comes with two interior shades: charcoal (available with cloth or multiple grades of leather) and sandstone (cloth only). Our test truck was painted Baja Storm—a shade of tan—and featured charcoal leather seating exclusive to the off-road ready PRO-4X and two-wheel-drive (2WD) PRO-X trim levels.

The 2022 Frontier is slightly longer than the outgoing Frontier, particularly in the nose, but overall, the growth does not appear dramatic. This truck will fit fine in garages and parking spots alike. It’s not a competitor to the bourgeoning class of compact pickups, including the upcoming Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz, nor does it really compare cleanly with larger midsize pickups like the Jeep Gladiator or Honda Ridgeline. The Frontier’s closest comps remain the Chevrolet Colorado, Ford Ranger, GMC Canyon, and Toyota Tacoma, and the team at Nissan was not shy about saying the Tacoma was their true target when engineering the 2022 Frontier.

Shoppers will be able to purchase a Frontier with either a King Cab or a Crew Cab. A regular two-door cab will not be available (it wasn’t on the second-generation Frontier, either). Instead, shoppers who need to move only two people at a time will be drawn to the King Cab, the backseat of which is far too small for big kids, let alone adults. King Cabs come with a 6-foot bed, while the Crew Cab comes standard with a 5-foot bed or an optional 6-footer on SV trims.

Nissan sells an available spray-in bedliner and offers the Frontier with optional LED bed lighting and a three-channel tie-down system. The top of the tailgate features an integrated spoiler to help improve aerodynamics.

Inside, the 2022 Frontier looks like a massive step forward not just for Nissan’s midsize pickup, but for the entire segment. The front seats feature Nissan’s lauded Zero Gravity technology. Insulation improvements, including an acoustic laminated windshield (like the one we appreciated so much on the 2021 Armada), help reduce engine noise, wind noise, and road noise.

A new center console offers more storage solutions, and there’s plenty of space ahead of the shift lever for your phone or wallet.

Finally, Nissan clearly recognizes customization as a massive business opportunity in the truck and off-road vehicle segment. There are now upwards of 80 optional accessories for the Frontier, including a sport bar for the truck bed, hood graphics, and easily removable off-road steprails.

The new Frontier’s powertrain is highlighted by its engine. But, like an eager kid too excited to wait until Christmas, Nissan unwrapped that 3.8-liter V6 engine back in 2020. Nissan reports that it has been retuned for the heavier 2022 Frontier, and it’s good for a class-leading 310 horsepower and 281 pound-feet of torque.

Without a doubt, the Frontier has no problem getting out of its own way. Acceleration is strong and drivers have plenty of passing power at highway speed. The powertrain is also equipped with a tow mode that remaps the shift points for improved performance under load. The Frontier's maximum payload is 1,610 pounds, and it has 6,720 pounds of towing capacity. Neither of those are class-leading, but they’re not far off, either. Honestly, if you’re planning to load your Frontier with anything close to those weights, we’d recommend moving up to a full-size Nissan Titan, instead.

Managing all that power is a nine-speed automatic transmission, controlled via a traditional center-mounted shifter, to either rear-wheel drive (RWD) or four-wheel drive (4WD) with 4-Hi and 4-Lo modes. We found that the transmission eagerly shifts down as the truck climbs uphill, providing plenty of power when you need it. One the truck levels out or heads downhill, it quickly climbs back up the gear ladder to maximize fuel economy.

Speaking of fuel economy, the Frontier won’t help you save money at the pump like a smaller Ford Maverick or a diesel-powered GMC Canyon might. EPA estimates for rear-wheel drive Frontiers are 18 mpg city, 24 highway, 20 combined, while four-wheel-drive models are expected to return 17/22/19.

Toyota has moved to an electric steering system, but Nissan went with a hydraulic rack and pinion system for the 2022 Frontier. The steering feel is noticeably heavier than the Tacoma’s. Traditional truck purists may like this, but it makes the Frontier harder to drive around town.

Of course, except for Honda, every automaker in the midsize truck segment offers a capable off-road kit. For Nissan it’s the PRO-4X trim. With hill-start assist, hill-descent control, an electronic locking rear differential, Bilstein shock absorbers, steel underbody skid plates, and an aluminum front skid plate, the Nissan Frontier PRO-4X has plenty of gear to help it climb trails and cross terrain. A surround-view monitor with an off-road mode also helps drivers keep an eye on obstacles after they cross below their line of sight ahead of the hood or along the truck’s sides, and the Frontier boasts a best-in-class approach angle of 32.3 degrees.

If you’re living somewhere that doesn’t require 4WD or you don’t plan to take your Frontier off-roading, but you like the PRO-4X model's look, you can opt for the 2WD PRO-X trim level. It loses the locking diff and skid plates but, like the old Frontier Desert Runner, it keeps the killer styling cues.

There’s not another truck on sale today that combines comfort and capability as well as the 2022 Nissan Frontier.

At least in the front seats, the Frontier feels incredibly comfortable. Nissan’s hugely comfortable Zero Gravity seats have earned plenty of praise, and simply put, this level of luxury is uncommon in the midsize pickup truck segment.

Further, the Frontier provides genuinely convenient storage options—significantly more so than the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon. Compared with the Ford Ranger and Toyota Tacoma, it feels big and spacious behind the wheel.

Now, in the backseat, things are a slightly different story. The Crew Cab Frontier offers a manageable amount of headroom and legroom, but backseat passengers won’t be stretching out like they would if you were driving a full-size pickup. And the King Cab’s rear seats are just not suitable for human beings. The seats are essentially jump seats. They’re good for a toolbox or some groceries, but not for anything with legs. Although we’ve always appreciated the look of access-cab trucks, they just don’t provide the same utility as a Crew Cab.

Nissan has scattered eight cupholders around the Frontier’s Crew Cab cabin, four of which are large enough to contain a 32-ounce bottle. And, like most trucks, the Frontier also offers additional storage beneath the rear seat in the Crew Cab.

This truck just feels ahead of the pack. We expect Toyota and Ford to catch up quickly, but right now, the comfort points belong to Nissan.

Arguably no aspect of the Frontier advanced as much from 2020 to 2021 as its technology offerings. A standard 8-inch touchscreen comes on the lowest-level S and one-step-up SV trims. Buy a PRO-4X, and you’ll enjoy a sharp and clear 9-inch screen. Both look good, and we doubt SV buyers will miss the extra inch.

Nissan also does a good job of making infotainment tools and features easy to find within the touchscreen interface. There are physical knobs for volume and tuning, hard buttons for audio source, map, and camera, and a dedicated menu button—something we’ve seen too many automakers choose to omit. There are also a back button and buttons for skipping through tracks or stations. The rest of the controls are handled via the touchscreen, but thankfully Nissan has equipped it with big icons.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are both standard equipment but require a wired connection—wireless projection is not supported. You can outfit your Frontier, however, with a wireless phone charger, and there’s an optional Kicker tailgate audio system, too. Crew Cab Frontiers feature four USB ports; a USB-A and a USB-C in the front and rear. Finally, the optional 10-speaker Fender stereo sounds great, although its availability as part of an expensive Premium Package along with leather and moonroof is a bit frustrating.

The Premium Package is one of only three on offer. There’s also the Technology Package, which adds the following safety features: blind-spot warning, rear cross traffic alert, rear automatic emergency braking, and adaptive cruise control. Nissan also has the Convenience Package, which adds the spray-in bedliner, bed lighting, a trailer hitch, two 120-volt wall-style outlets, and heated mirrors, seats, and steering wheel.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) haven’t crash-tested the 2022 Nissan Frontier yet, but that’s common with major redesigns. We strongly suspect the 2022 model will perform better than the previous-generation Frontier, whose crash-test scores could be described as “middling.”

The new truck offers a bevy of standard advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) under the umbrella of Nissan Safety Shield 360, including safety features like automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, a driver attention monitor, intelligent forward collision warning, trailer sway control, rear-door alert, and an easy-fill tire alert that honk’s the truck’s horn when you’ve reached the appropriate PSI for each tire. Eight airbags also come standard, and Nissan offers traffic sign recognition, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, rear sonar, and the other Technology Package features as optional equipment.

The Toyota Tacoma carries a starting MSRP of $26,400. But that truck has a two-door regular cab, RWD, and an anemic, 159-horsepower inline four-cylinder engine. The Frontier, on the other hand, comes from the factory with an extra set of doors and a potent 310-horsepower V6. So we’re not surprised to see its higher price tag: $29,340 for an S trim with RWD.

What’s more startling is how much a truly competing Tacoma costs. Pricing for a Tacoma SR RWD with the company’s V6 engine and six-speed automatic transmission starts at $32,125. The math majors at CarGurus identified that as a $2,785 difference, a 9.5% premium for a truck that hasn’t been redesigned in six years.

Right now, Nissan doesn’t have a direct competitor to the nearly $50,000 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro. But its Frontier PRO-4X, which competes more directly with the Tacoma TRD Off-Road, is also priced competitively—a few hundred dollars less than the Toyota at $37,240.

If fuel economy is part of your calculus, then no midsize pickup is going to look like a cost-effective choice, not even the new Frontier, thanks to its 19-mpg combined fuel economy rating. However, until Ford, GM, and Toyota start rolling out their own redesigned midsize pickup trucks, Nissan has the best one at the best price.